Monday, October 15, 2007

Ok, it was not pretty -- but Mark Sanchez got it down against Arizona. Last week, I called for USC to bench John David Booty -- and on Saturday -- I got my wish.

Mark Sanchez had been on the sidelines for two years, with some of us preferring him to get the chance over John David Booty. Mark, the redshirt sophomore brought exactly what had been missing from the team -- leadership, passion, and fire.

You could see Mark Sanchez getting in the faces of other players, acting with confidence and providing leadership to the team. While he struggled a little in the first half, he came through in the 2nd half when needed with a couple of aggressive scrambles and a perfect touchdown pass to Fred Davis in a critical situation. All of this with 10 starting members of the Trojans benched with injuries, impressive!

Will Mark get the start next week? We can only hope!

On another note, it looks like it was Joe McKnight's coming out party. At games this year I have heard the chants to put the kid in, but to this point the true freshman was struggling to find his game in the college ranks. And, on two occassions he showed why USC fans were so happy to see him commit.

If you have not seen the video below, you have to give it a watch:

The most disappointing moment of the day? The Cal Bears losing to the Oregon State Beavers. It was a golden (no pun intended) opportunity for Cal to take a stake at the top of the rankings. With that win, either USC, Cal, or Arizona State were guaranteed to go to the National Championship game if they won out.

The BCS picture just got a whole lot more complex for the members of the PAC-10